In Srbobran, 50,000 for seven projects; in Vojvodina, nearly 200 for the same amount: What are the fees for the commissions for project co-financing?

By reviewing the decisions regarding the appointment of committees, which specify the compensation amounts for committee members, a significant disproportion in the fee levels relative to the number of media projects they were required to read and evaluate is evident.

For example, committee members in Merošina had to review 13 projects for a fee of 3,000 dinars, while those in Srbobran and Beočin read only seven submitted applications for a fee of 50,000 dinars.

For 50,000 dinars, committee members in AP Vojvodina reviewed 197 submitted projects for the media content competition, while those in the Ministry of Information had 146 applications to evaluate for the competition aimed at people with disabilities. In contrast, for the same amount in Kula, the committee reviewed only three projects for the minority competition, as shown by the analysis of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).

The highest fee was in the committee of the Ministry for the Internet media competition – 70,000 dinars, with 306 projects submitted. The committees of the Ministry for the minority, radio, and TV competitions received 60,000 dinars each.

A fee of 50,000 dinars was awarded in at least 28 committees, 40,000 in seven, 30,000 in 13, 25,000 in four, 20,000 in 16, 15,000 in 16, and 10,000 in ten committees. The lowest amounts were in Dimitrovgrad, where 2,000 dinars were paid per session if held in the municipality's premises, and they had to read and evaluate 17 projects. Less than 10,000 dinars was also seen in Merošina – 3,000, Sečanj – 5,000, Ražanj – 7,000, Svilajnac – 8,000, and Veliko Gradište – 9,000.

Nearly 50 cities and municipalities do not have published compensation amounts in the decisions regarding the selection of committees, including Belgrade, Smederevo, Zrenjanin, Subotica, Pirot, Šabac...

Media associations and journalist organizations (the Association of Independent Electronic Media, the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia, the Journalists' Association of Serbia, Local Press, and the Media Association) have aligned their proposal regarding the necessary changes in the process of project co-financing of media content, which has been officially sent to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications. The proposal states that it is necessary to align the fee rates for committee members depending on the number of projects for evaluation.

As noted in the ANEM analysis of the project co-financing process, as of August 1 of this year, the Professional Association of Journalists of Serbia (PROUNS) leads in the number of local governments where it has representatives serving as committee members for evaluating media projects. As of August 1, PROUNS had representatives in as many as 53 cities/municipalities out of 142 established decision-making bodies for projects, which is more than one-third.

The Journalists' Society of Vojvodina (DNV), with 45 representatives, follows closely behind PROUNS in the number of local governments where it has representatives on committees.

PROUNS and DNV also lead in the number of members on committees for the competitions of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications (MIT). Both associations had members in five out of a total of nine competitions announced by MIT.

Independent media experts Branimir Grulović and Branislav Sančanin were appointed to a total of 110 out of the 87 committees formed for the co-financing of media projects by August – Grulović in as many as 64 committees and Sančanin in 46.

The project of the Association of Independent Electronic Media "Participatory Monitoring of the Implementation of Project Co-Financing" is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the MATRA program. ANEM is solely responsible for the content, and it does not necessarily reflect the official views of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.